Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship, and Sacrifice

Now that the movie adaptation (which I haven't seen) of this book is out and I've seen all the Hollywood posters, I was expecting this book to be a singular "human interest" tale about two pilots of different races bonding and then accomplishing some heroic feat in combat. I'm a fan of aviation and have always been fascinated by modern war history, so why not give it a go? But this book turned out not to be what I expected. It is indeed a remarkable war tale involving two exceptional men of different backgrounds. However it is also so much more than that. At Devotion’s core is a harrowing re-counting of the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir--one of the Korean War's most significant and horrifying battles--as told from the viewpoints of multiple real people both on the ground and in the air.*** The author attempts to put you into the frostbitten bodies of its main characters as they haplessly endure wave after wave of night attacks from bayonet-baring Chinese soldiers, all the while praying for air support that cannot come.Starting from the book's second third, along came numerous educational tidbits for my brain: for instance, the war being "Korean," I never knew how much of it was played out primarily by Chinese soldiers (the US was once kind of unofficially at war with China?!), who essentially surrounded and slaughtered some 800 American servicemen on their first pass. I never knew how weapons froze at night so commonly that skirmishes were won or lost via bayonet and hand-to-hand combat (ugh). I never knew that so many Chinese and North Korean POWs elected NOT to return to their home countries at the war's end (what a telling choice), and that the thorny issue of their repatriation was what kept the war going for so long.Surely, Devotion is flawed in some ways; for instance, the book's preamble took up at least the entire first third of the book and I personally found it way too long. (For instance, why are so many pages spent on Elizabeth Taylor’s pre-combat interactions with the USS Leyte’s crew, again told from multiple viewpoints? It made the story feel paltry, and was an ironic choice considering the author later specifically footnotes that Elizabeth Taylor’s subsequent request to visit the Leyte was denied for the reason that she would detract from the gravity of events . . . ) This portion could certainly have been condensed without losing too much backdrop. That said, if anyone feels this first third is losing them, I’d definitely recommend to keep on reading. Once the real combat begins, the story does not disappoint.Given the perplexing dearth of accessible American books about the Korean War, I feel this book is sorely needed. It has always vexed me to that so many lives, including 37,000 American ones, were spent securing the freedom of today's 51 million South Koreans--and yet we seem to have forgotten them. Without the sacrifice of so many young men, we would have no K-Pop, K-dramas, Samsung, Hyundai! (If only the US had been able to claim such a partial victory in Vietnam . . . given my own Vietnamese heritage, I look at South Korea and think about this particular "what if" all the time.) It seems a grave injustice that the suffering these men endured, and what they accomplished as a result, has largely been eclipsed by narratives surrounding WWII and the Vietnam War. This book is one more much-needed chip in the battle against that injustice. At its end, I felt real gratitude to Adam Makos and his staff for undertaking the painstaking work of gathering and telling these men's stories. What love this must have required. Bravo.***EDIT: For those who liked the photographs in Devotion and are interested in the VISUALS of the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir (and of the Korean War in general), I would highly recommend the documentary “American Experience: The Battle of Chosin,” which is available on Prime Video (and is included in a Prime subscription). It contains excellent footage of many of the devastating details included in Makos’ book, including Chinese night assaults on American Marines, eventual air support (Corsairs and Skyraiders!), and the 14-mile withdrawal march to Hungnam Bay. It also features numerous veteran interviews including with Red Parkinson, one of Devotion’s primary characters.

I am not an historian or particularly well-educated in military history. Nor am I any kind of real critic - just a very grateful American Nobody who loves to read about our amazing WWII Veterans and their experiences. The brief recap of this book and that it was written by Adam Makos got my attention - his books about WWII are so good. Knowing almost nothing about the Korean War, I decided to give this book a go and bought it on CD. As I wrote to Mr. Makos, this book is, simply, beautiful. That may not be an appropriate word to some but that is how it struck me. These men and women are amazing people and "meeting" them has been another experience in gratitude and learning. The courage, love and sacrifice these people gave really shine through in Makos' telling and Dominic Hoffman does (in my opinion) as good a job reading this book as Edward Herrmann did "Unbroken." Some may question the actual closeness of the friendship between Jesse L. Brown and Tom Hudner - I did at first. Until Hudner makes the decision to help Brown with the full knowledge he was risking his own life and career. The title is perfect. It describes the Navy pilots and Marines central to the story, the marriage of Jesse and Daisy Brown, and the love and care of Brown's fellow pilots and the USS Leyte crew toward the Browns. The book is also a really good primer (for lack of a better word) for those of us who know so little about the Korean War, especially the battle of the Chosin Reservoir which I agree was very close to being the Korean version of the Battle of the Bulge. I find it so wrong that, at middle age, I had never heard of Ensign Brown - a true pioneer and an exceptional man who's story should be known by all Americans. Nor had I ever heard of Lt. Hudner who truly earned his MoH. And we should never discount or forget the awful racism of those times (or any other). Makos' book is a well written, engaging and remarkable story that I am thankful to have found. It's also a very worthy history lesson on several levels. Read this book - you won't regret it. But do remember to keep tissues near - you will need them.

A book that I have enjoyed reading. Tear jerker in places and I am now looking forward to seeing the movie.

Que história!Não tem o que dizer, recomendo e muito esse livro.Não somente a história de Jesse Brown que é fantástica, mas também de todos os fuzileiros que estiveram lá naquela guerra.

Problème d'impression: les pages, entre les deux cahiers intérieurs de photo, sont inversées (pp 115 à 210).

Bel libro, scritto in inglese molto comprensibile. Purtroppo ho dovuto aspettare 2 settimane in più.

What an an incredible true story that took place during the Korean war. A war that for the most part does not get enough written about it, this book has so many high intense battle scenes and shows the brotherhood of the US Navy fighter pilots. Adam Makos did an exceptional job on getting the research done for his book. If you are into military history books this book is for you